Following surgical procedures and for purposes of tissue repair, body openings formed by the incision, tearing or cutting may be efficiently closed by securing the body tissue in intimate assembly. Such skin closing is typically accomplished by suturing, where a curved needle with a thread-like suture attached through an eyelet thereof may be passed through the skin and may be secured by means of a surgical knot. Typically, a number of sutures are required to accomplish efficient closure of a surgical incision.
Another method for accomplishing closure of a surgical incision or wound is to bring opposed skin portions into intimate assembly and then secure the same by means of staples. Typical staples are formed such as shown in FIGS. 6 and 7. Suitable stapling apparatus is typically utilized to deform the staples in assembly with the skin tissue of the patient, resulting in a finished staple configuration such as shown in FIG. 7.
One of the problems with application of staples to secure skin portions in assembly is the difficulty of maintaining opposed skin portions in abutting but non-overlapped relation. As shown in FIG. 7, opposed skin portions can easily become overlapped. The obvious result is improper healing and development of a surgical scar of undesirable configuration.
Through the use of sutures, the skin of the patient can be easily brought into proper abutting relation to ensure efficient healing. One of the problems with suturing, however, is that it is a time consuming procedure, thereby typically requiring the surgeon and patient to spend more time in the operating theatre than is desired for efficient utilization of the operatory. It is desirable, therefore, to provide a means for accomplishing efficient and quick closure of the patient to thereby minimize the time requirements for completion of the surgical procedure. It is also desirable to provide a system for accomplishing efficient closure of the patient and yet which also ensures that the skin of the patient be brought into intimate, non-overlapping relation through the use of stapling apparatus.